{"id":13416,"date":"2017-09-14T16:22:17","date_gmt":"2017-09-14T15:22:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=13416"},"modified":"2017-09-14T16:22:17","modified_gmt":"2017-09-14T15:22:17","slug":"within-our-grasp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=13416","title":{"rendered":"\u00e2\u20ac\u0098Within our grasp\u00e2\u20ac\u2122"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>Unite assistant general secretary Diana Holland seconded a transport policy motion focusing on bus services.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Speaking for Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s quarter of a million transport members she said it was vital for jobs, communities and the economy to have a fully integrated transport policy.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBuses are the most frequently used \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been said the most democratic form of public transport. They are the lifelines of our communities, for people of all ages \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and for women in particular,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 believed Holland.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>But that relevance was often taken for granted. After 30 years of deregulation and privatisation and more recently austerity, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bmany communities, especially rural communities feel let down and left out.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhat use is a bus pass if there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no bus?\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she asked.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bServices designed and run for private profit, not local need, while every day Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 90,000 bus workers face threats to their pay and pensions in the race to the bottom on standards. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no way to run a bus service.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>She explained Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s aim in getting involved in this debate was the introduction of this year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bus services act which \u00e2\u20ac\u015benables re-regulation of buses, which is of course welcome. But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the implementation of this re-regulation that now needs to happen. And the union must be at the table, as agreed, as of right.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bTogether with agreed TUPE and pension rights \u00e2\u20ac\u201c rights we must win for new workers too,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she continued.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe bus act could also have provided an opportunity to extend bus use satisfaction and save \u00c2\u0141506m a year through municipal operation- bringing buses into public control and ownership, while meeting local.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut the government inserted a clause in the act to ban councils from setting up new municipal bus companies. They are hell bent on destroying our democracy. So if we want the best for the workers, for our communities we need to join together to get this clause out!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bA decent, accountable bus service is within our grasp,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 concluded Holland.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unite assistant general secretary Diana Holland seconded a transport policy motion focusing on bus services. &nbsp; Speaking for Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s quarter of a million transport members she said it was vital for jobs, communities and the economy to have a fully integrated transport policy. &nbsp; \u00e2\u20ac\u015bBuses are the most frequently used \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been said [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13417,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[428,176,202,523,792],"wps_subtitle":"Accountable bus services call","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13416"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13416"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13416\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13418,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13416\/revisions\/13418"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}